Dependencia Divina
Three months and six days ago I stepped off an airplane here in Argentina for the first time. Since then the Lord has taught me many lessons and I have experienced many new things that many people never get to experience in a lifetime. With language school complete I have been able to turn my time and energy to other things. I joined a basketball team here and I practice with them 6 hours a week, the Lord has opened doors there for me and I have been able to build relationships with the 25 or so young guys I practice with. I have been able to share the Lord with one in particular named Juan and I am looking forward to seeing how the Lord uses that relationship for His glory. I look forward to developing the relationships I have with the guys there and reaching them with the Gospel. I have also been given the opportunity to be able to teach the Sunday School lessons to the kids. That had been a blast (and challenging since it is all in Spanish!) and I have really enjoyed it. Another outlet that I am pursuing is getting to know the young guys that go to the local gym and work out here. I have had some good conversations with one named Matias.
As we move closer to the date of going public with the church (March 28th being the first public service), the pace of ministry is increasing. So much to get ready for the launching of the church. Sometimes I wonder if it ever is possible so be "ready" for something like this, but we will "give our best and trust the Lord with the rest" to paraphrase that which my dad often tells me.
The Lord has taught me many lessons in my time here...one of the values of the group of believers here is "dependencia divina" or, "divine dependence." I have been in Argentina for over three months now and these words have become more alive and carry a deeper meaning for me that I ever would have previously thought. To truly depend on the Divine One, to have Him, as the song puts it, our "All in All". This is a high calling, and often times a difficult task. However, through Him we can release our dependence on the things of this world, and, as a dear friend and mentor so faithfully reminds me, "lean heavy on the Lord"
Till HE comes,
Garrett
Posted March 14, 2010 by Garrett.
Update!
Here we are, in the middle of the month of February. Time indeed has been passing quickly. I'm sitting here trying to find a way to articulate all the thoughts in my mind. So much has happened in the past few weeks it has all seemingly blurred together. I guess I'll just start with the facts. Sunday the 7th I finished going through a church-planting seminar with the rest of the team here. We hosted a missionary from who is working in Mexico and he came and taught the course. It was really informative and it gave us all some good things to think on, work on, and implement. Wednesday the 10th our group of guys finished the 40 days of prayer&it was a tremendous time of encouragement and worship to the Lord and we trust that the Lord will use those prayers for His glory. To top it all off, the big highlight was that on Friday the 12th I completed language school! 200 hours of class time, not including homework and extra study. I thank the Lord for giving me the strength to complete it and I'm happy to be done.
Things are getting into full-swing here now. With the eminent launch of the church in City Bell we are all very busy preparing all that we can to be ready for the day and the weeks that follow. In the next days and week, we will be doing a lot of planning and forming of schedules, strategies, and day to day jobs/activities to reach others with the Gospel. A lot of my time is being spent in making contact with new guys in the community. This past Saturday I went with Vini and played a soccer game with a bunch of other young guys. It was a great time to start building relationships with some of the guys. They invited me back to play so Lord willing there are some open doors there to reach out to those guys. I actually ran into my mailman on the soccer field! I had met him a month ago at the post office and then he wound up being on my team and then I saw him again yesterday and we had a good chat. Looking forward to seeing how the Lord uses that relationship.
One story I'd like to share is about what happened at my language school the last week. Over the past months I had been able to share the Gospel with several of my professors&we had some good discussions on baptism, confession to priests, praying to the saints, Kabbalah, and other interesting topics. There are so many religious traditions and spiritual practices that are not in the Scriptures, and contrary to it. My goal was to point them to the Scriptures and show the truth of Jesus. My last week of school one of the professors came up to me and said that he had been talking with his girlfriend about it and that they would like to come and visit the church here in City Bell. He came up and asked out of the blue and without me inviting him&what a work of God! At the end of the week I invited two other professors and the both said that they were curious and that they wanted to come and visit. Lord willing the three of them will be here at the church this Sunday. Pray for them!
Phase one of language acquisition is complete, now jumping into full-time ministry. May I walk in the Light as He is in the Light! I'd love to hear from you all and thanks so much to those of you who have sent me letters and packages!
Keep running hard,
Garrett
Posted February 17, 2010 by Garrett.
40 days update
Well here we are. 40 days since I flew out of the United States. The time here has flown by so quickly. Just this afternoon I was talking with one of the missionaries and was telling them how amazed I was at how fast the time has flown. I hit the ground running and have learned so much in the time I have been here. My language skills have increased dramatically praise God and I have been able to learn a lot of culture as well. The Lord has been teaching me many things, one being that I must find my sustenance and sufficiency in Him and Him alone. I must feed well on His Word and pass sweet time with Him in prayer and meditation. He must indeed be All in All.
Today I also learned another interesting lesson. There is a guy named Williams that has come to the church a few times, and today I asked him over to eat lunch with me. This guy is a professional soccer player who is from Liberia and is training to play with one of the best club teams around. As we walked back to my house I was thinking how I could share the Gospel with him as we talked I realized that it was going to take some time. I have to build trust, learn how he thinks, and really invest in him before any words I say will make sense to him. I don't know his culture, I don't know the way he thinks it's hard. In the States it was simple to share the gospel. Here in such a radically different context things aren't as easy. Takes a lot more ground work and time investment in the person. Pray that I will be faithful to keep learning how I can share the good news of Jesus with him.
The preponderance of my time has been devoted to language school, study, travel, and trying to meet other young guys. For the first 40 days of this month all us guy missionaries will meet for prayer at 6:00 A.M. to praise the Lord, to ask Him for guidance in our planning, for the growth and health of the church. So my days have been starting at 5:00 A.M. or earlier every day. Today was day number 16. 24 to go! After prayer in the morning the three hours of travel and six hours of class take the majority of the time. I have been going to a local gym and exercising as a way to meet other guys. One guy in particular that I have been in contact with is named Frederico. He and I lift weights together. Pray for our relationship to progress and for opportunity to share the Gospel with him. I have also enjoyed getting to be part of the church. I have been assigned the title of tech guy so my responsibilities on Sunday morning are to make sure everything works right as far as the technical side of the powerpoint, microphone, and music. It is a good way I can serve as I continue to build my language skills.
Continue to pray as we gear up for more intense ministry in the coming weeks and months. The months of January and February are big vacation months for the Argentina people&so there are a lot of people gone, a lot of stores closed, and a lot of empty houses. Lord willing we will actually go public with the Iglesia Biblica de City Bell (Bible church of City Bell) in 9 weeks. We are all really looking forward to officially launching the church here. Pray that we will be prepared to minister to the people who come, pray that we will have the sufficient funds to be able to buy a sign and put on a good event to attract the community.
Thanks so much to those of you who have emailed with news from home! It is always encouraging to hear what things are happening back there. May you all walk with the Lord and delight in His ways!
Till He comes,
Garrett
P.S. For those of you who have facebook, I have uploaded pictures on my page. Go check 'em out!
Posted January 17, 2010 by Garrett.
12-09-2009 Made it!
11-24-2009 Counting down till I go up
10-31-2009 Getting there by His grace
09-28-2009 Support Raising Update
